The present disclosure relates generally to a support for an infant carrier, and relates more particularly to a holder for a handheld infant carrier for use with a transport device.
Handheld infant carriers are well known and widely used for transporting infants in a variety of circumstances. In the case of transporting an infant in a motor vehicle, infant carrier manufacturers sometimes provide a base that can be securely installed in a rear seating area of the motor vehicle and can accept a handheld infant carrier in a secure engagement. The combination of infant carrier and base can provide a stable and fixed transport platform so that an infant in such a carrier can be securely and safely transported in the motor vehicle. Some infant carriers are configured to be secured in a rear seating area of a motor vehicle without a mating base. Infant carriers are sometimes configured with a handle arrangement to permit the infant carrier to be handheld and transported by hand. Infant carriers are available that are designed to be easily releasable from the motor vehicle securement to permit ease of manual transport. Some types of infant carriers are also configured to be releaseably secured to a stroller, to permit the infant carrier to be transported without necessarily manually carrying the infant carrier.
In each of the configurations where an infant carrier mates to a base or stroller for transport, the mating configuration is typically proprietary to the infant carrier manufacturer. Accordingly, an infant carrier made in accordance with one manufacturer's design does not typically engage with or mate with a transport base or cart that is provided in accordance with another manufacturer's design. As a result, infant carriers tend to be usable with transport mechanisms that are specifically designed for that type of infant carrier, and no others.
A shopper with an infant in an infant carrier is often challenged with regard to transporting the infant, infant carrier and a shopping cart that is intended for transporting goods selected by the shopper in a shopping environment. The infant carrier is not ideally placed in a basket of the shopping cart, since little room is left for selected goods, and the carrier may not be stably secured. If the infant carrier is mated to an associated stroller that is specific to the infant carrier design, the shopping customer is challenged to transport the infant carrier-stroller combination and the shopping cart in a shopping environment.
Alternately, the shopper may opt to manually transport the infant in the infant carrier while pushing the shopping cart, which raises another set of challenges. For example, it may be physically difficult for the shopper to carry the infant carrier throughout the shopping experience. Handheld infant carriers can be relatively weighty and thus challenging for users to carry for a duration of a shopping trip. The shopper may set the infant carrier on a floor of the shopping environment while selecting goods, for example, which represents a challenge for protection of the infant from potential dangers such as may be presented from dropped objects, being a tripping hazard, or being hit by shopping carts. In addition, the infant is located near to the potentially unsanitary surface of the shopping environment floor.
Recognizing some of these challenges, some infant carrier manufacturers have produced designs intended to be used with popular shopping cart models that permit the infant carrier to be located on a shopping cart in a somewhat stable arrangement. For example, the infant carrier may be configured to cooperate with the handle, gate or foldout seatback of a shopping cart to obtain a somewhat stable perch for the infant carrier. This approach to meeting the above-noted challenges of handling an infant carrier in a shopping environment has several drawbacks. For example, the infant carrier tends to be mounted on the shopping cart at a fairly high location relative to the shopping cart center of gravity, potentially increasing the tip-over risk of the infant carrier or the shopping cart in combination with the infant carrier. In addition, the infant carrier configuration tends to be fairly specific to the manufacturer, as noted above, so that the infant carrier is not usable with all varieties of shopping carts, which tend to vary significantly among retail establishments. Accordingly, the customer with an infant in an infant carrier faces a number of challenges in shopping environments in general.
The use of infant carriers in other circumstances can present different challenges. For example, new mothers leaving a health facility after giving birth may have difficulty carrying an infant carrier with a new infant. Some health facilities, including some hospitals, require that an infant carrier be available for the newborn infant to be transported home.